Living In Another World

Citing Talk Talk’s Living In Another World as one of my all-time favourite tracks gives away my age but what the hell it still sounds so damn fine in every respect to my ears. One of the frustrations of the digital age of music, OK it’s still early days, has been that a lot of the extras tracks, remixes, 12-inch versions of singles and so on have taken forever to appear in legal versions. One of the ones that’s been on my list has been the 12-inch version of Living In Another World.

Sure, I still have the vinyl version, not worn out yet, and I could digitise it but one of the advantages for me as a consumer and for the music owners is that I can relive the thrill of buying it all over again. Unfortunately, this is not quite the case.

EMI, in its eternal wisdom has made the Remixed: Talk Talk available on iTunes – hurrah. The only rather sizable fly in the ointment is that only six of the 12 tracks (yes 50% of the album) can be bought individually and of course Living In Another World is not one of them. So, the original dilemma is back – digitise my own copy, find a pirate version or buy the whole album. Why am I pushed into that set of choices? We’re now living in the age of variable pricing, so if the six other tracks are perceived to be the draw and so more valuable why not price them that way and let me pick and choose.

Old thinking in the new world.

Just when you think the music labels are moving into the 20th century, you get a little reminder that large pockets of stupidity remain alive and well.

My decision? I bought the album but my perception of the label and industry, not the band, is tarnished (yet again) and my gut instinct was to go to the pirate sites, sticking the virtual two fingers up but I respect the artists involved. No wonder pirate sites will remain the bigger destinations. Dumb and Dumber…